FW: Merry Christmas 2015 and Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel to you all! We had a very joyous Christmas Day and are enjoying our Christmas break! We hope you are enjoying this Christmas Season and stopping to reflect on how one small baby came that was like no other and changed the world forever for good! For God to love us so much and come into the world so humbly is something to awe over. We feel very blessed with all the love out-poured for us! I am like Mary this Christmas in expecting a Son, but I will have a lot more plush accommodations and help at Tampa General than she had! We are eagerly awaiting our 3rd Son who is due January 5th, and can't wait to snuggle with him and get to know him better!

 

This last January we moved back to Tampa after being in Atlanta for a year for Jeffrey's Medical School. We moved back in with Jeffrey's parents who have been so kind to support us during all this schooling of his. So Jeffrey finished up his elective rotations here in Tampa and then we took a motorhome trip up to Canada and he did his last rotation in Newport, VT. So we are very proud of him for finishing Medical School and all the hard work he has put into it! As a highlight of the year, his parents celebrated with us by taking us to Switzerland and so we had a wonderful week there to visit Family and friends and enjoy it's beauties.

 

We then returned home to Tampa and Jeffrey has taken a job teaching Physics at HCC while studying for medical board exams for the State which he hopes to take soon. He would like to be able to use both his physics and medical knowledge in research so he has been busy looking at all the options of work and applying places. We will be moving back to Daytona Beach for this Spring semester as he's starting a part time job at his Allma Mater - Embry Riddle. Our hope is that it would lead to a full time position there, so please add your prayers to ours!

 

Vincent is now in 8 and in 3rd grade and finished up 2nd grade with wonderful grades and made his Mama & Papa proud! He has had his first communion and is really taking to heart what a gift we have to receive Jesus at Mass. Vincent has an inquiring mind and will ask me deep questions these days which shows me how he is growing in both faith and reason. He really enjoyed the motorhome trip and was such a help to Papa with hooking and unhooking things at the stops, (while I was in my 1st trimester) that he was rewarded with a big lego pirate ship. Lego's are his favorite toys now for years and he's busy making his Christmas sets up and playing with them and Felix. He enjoys our weekly homeschool co-op where he has a science class that usually involves holding exotic animals and learning natural science. Then he gets to play at the park with his friends and in the afternoon has lego club where he gets to build, explore engineering and building concepts and have loads of fun at the same time. I have been leading the lego club group and have really enjoyed seeing the children's imaginations and skill in their creations come out! We are very blessed to have a big active homeschool group here that encourages us in our faith and supports eachother in our times of need.

 

Felix is now 4 and is such a cute little rascal that no one can stay mad at him for long! He's grown a lot this last year in being able to communicate and I am often surprised at what comes out of his mouth these days. The other day when we learned of a boy in our church who had passed away and we commented on the sadness of this in the car. Felix said 'But Jesus can bring him back, right Mama?' Wow, all those talks on Jesus' miracles and Heaven and the Resurrection were really getting through! So I told him that 'Yes, Jesus can bring him back when the time is right, honey'. Another time he amused us after the sonogram that showed the baby was a boy by saying 'Oh boy, oh boy he's a man!!" and "I told you it was going to be a boy Mama' which he had on many occasions! I'm very happy for him that he's getting the little brother he dreamed for! Felix went to St. Paul's Preschool for the fall and it was a very good learning experience for him (as it had been for Vincent). I've noticed he's better at getting along with other kids his age (he's used to roughhousing with his older brother) and is better at helping pick up and communicate when he's having a problem. He enjoys drawing and is starting to read some basic books. He's not my little baby anymore!

 

I have had a busy year with supporting Jeffrey and the kids and all the traveling while being pregnant, so sometimes it's felt like I'm just making it through the days. But I am so thankful for another child, that I don't mind having a year that has seemed to fly by in a blur. I have done some catechism teaching for Vincent's faith formation classes at church and have really enjoyed that and learning from the other catechists that I assist. I enjoy teaching the boys at home and being a part of our wonderful JMJ homeschool group. We will really miss them in Daytona Beach and will look to see what we can find there for support as well. We will thankfully still be returning often to join in the group when we come to see the Family in Tampa. I've also joined a beautiful prayer group that operates on email and in person, and is a beautiful blessing. I am enjoying crocheting a baby blanket for the little guy and getting the house ready with everything you need for a baby!

 

There are always a few kinks in the road and currently our town-home in Daytona is all ripped up from a toilet leak that effected the bathroom, 2 rooms and a few closets. We have a group working on restoration though and and hopefully this will not keep us from moving into the house in the middle of Jan when Jeffrey's new job starts!

 

We hope you all have a beautiful new year and would love to hear what is new with you and yours!! Bonne Annee!

 

God Bless and Many Hugs from,

 

Jeffrey, Haley, Vincent, Felix and Baby

 

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And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." - Matt. 9:1